Time is extremely critical when trying to find a lost or downed firefighter. His air supply and the temperature of the surrounding environment limit the firefighter's survival time. Typical methods to find and rescue a firefighter in a burning structure usually involve visual methods such as following hose lines or seeing a flashing light signal. These methods can be severely hampered in a very dense smoke-filled space making it virtually impossible to find a lost or downed firefighter in a timely manner.
Personal alert safety systems (PASS) are also commonly used today to locate firefighters in distress. The PASS devices produce an audible signal which, in some cases, varies in volume depending upon where the source is to aid in locating the firefighter in distress.
Following the audible signal to its source locates the distressed firefighter. However, the PASS device location method can also be severely hampered by the high noise level of a raging fire which masks changes in the volume of an audible signal. PASS devices may also be equipped with flashing strobe lights which are intended to be visible and guide a rescuer, but such lights currently in use are severely hampered by dense smoke.
The present invention solves these problems by providing a rescue system which penetrates dense smoke and is unaffected by the noise of a raging fire. The beam from the helmet-mounted element of the present invention not only illuminates a firefighter's forward path as he moves about inside a burning structure, but also, because of its frequency and intensity, is easily and quickly detected by the field of view of a handheld probe element in the hands of a rescuer.